City and Colour at Santa Teresa Festival in Ste Therese

The Santa Teresa Festival is from the same team that brought to you the day long MRCY Fest in Laval back in 2014 where Alabama Shakes, Mac Miller and July talk headlined.

For Santa Teresa, headliners from this festival included first nations group A Tribe Called Red, Montreal’s own The Franklin Electric, Patrick Watson (whose shows both sold out!) and Safia Nolin to name a few.

City and Colour at St. Teresa Festival. Photo Melissa Martella.

On the first night of the festival, I decided to take the 30 minute drive outside of the city to check out the headliner of the fest, City and Colour. I gathered with a group of people at the doors of Eglise Ste Therese D’Avila, waiting to be let in to go worship City and Colour.

As I walked in, I was greeted by the familiar smell of old church. It felt surreal to head to a church to listen to a mainstream musician that has little to nothing to do with religion. To quote Dallas himself “This is a nice building, but I’m surprised I was let in!” Surrounded by religious icons, enormous pillars and stained glass,I found a church pew to sit in, and waited for the show to begin with my fellow churchgoers.

There’s one thing you have to understand about a church venue, and it’s that it’s not a typical venue. Not only did City and Colour’s beautiful voice reverberate off the walls, but it was almost haunting seeing Dallas sitting at the altar, on a chair with guitar in hand with only a spotlight illuminating him.

The crowd was also hesitant to cheer in between songs, and it felt awkward hearing the crowd yell that they loved Dallas in quiet moments, and it removed from the sonic experience. But that luckily stopped a couple of songs in.

By the last song, I realized that City and Colour is the perfect act to come and see in the walls of a church. Because of his acoustic nature and calm disposition, it didn’t feel that all out of place, but rather familiar and relaxing taking in all of his songs from a pew. If you ever get the chance to see an acoustic show in a church, I highly recommend it as it is a once in a lifetime experience.